TMNT The reason
by AsdButTrue
Summary: A problem with Casey Jones, a ton of new bad guys, and a quest for the real reason of their existence. Will the TURTLE POWER be enough to help the turtles face these new menaces?


_A note from the author:_

_I don't own TMNT. Some of you thought I did? Well, _I don't

"_The warrior protects and defends because he realizes the value of others. He knows that they are essential to society and, in his gift of service, recognizes and values theirs... take the extra moment in dark parking lots at night to make sure that a woman gets into her car safely before leaving yourself. Daily involvement in acts such as these are as much a part of training as time spent in the dojo, and indeed should be the reason for that time spent training... When faced with a woman or child in a situation in which they are vulnerable, there are two types of men: those who would offer succor and aid, and those who would prey upon them. And in modern society, there is another loathsome breed who would totally ignore their plight." _James William

Doctor Tom Rivers wasn't nervous. Wasn't nervous at all. Sure he got assigned to a mission in a new regiment of the army, and so he had to leave his former fellows of the sixth regiment in Michigan and move to the seventh regiment in New York. But he didn't worry. It was temporary; he just had to assist his superiors in a special, top secret mission. He didn't know much about it - he would have know the details when he would have arrived at the HQ in the military field - but he guessed it had something to do with his knowledge in genetic engineering. You don't call a genetic scientist who works for the government on a military mission to put him on the first line in a war. Unless you really lack soldiers. But that was not an eventuality in that case.

Anyway, it was not a mission of war. Of that, Tom was sure.

The flight was comfortable, and at the airport a soldier in civilian cloths came to take him to the HQ. They took a Jeep, and they traversed the state streets until they reached an unmanned area, a military training field.

As they passed the check at the bar and entered in the area delimited by the barbed wire, Tom thought that everything was fine. He would have been fairly paid for this work, and wouldn't have worked much. Perfect.

Major General Turkstone looked through the curtains of the window is his office at the scientist entering in his field – in his territory – escordet by his soldiers.

"I'm glad he accepted to cooperate on this mission" he said to his first official, General Owen. Owen was much younger of his superior, but still he radiated as much as charisma as Trukstone. Looking back at him with eyes cold as the calm before the storm, Owen replied: "He would have done it in any case".

Trukstone decided there wasn't any need to add more, and with his usual extreme composure, waited for Dc. Rivers to come in his room.

The handle twiddled, and two big soldiers pushed Riverse behond the opened door, into the office of Turkstone.

"Tch, how bad-mannered…" Doctor Rivers moaned. Words died on his lips as Turkstone froze him with a glacial, sever look.

"Please, sit down, Doctor Rivers" Owen said, pointing to a chair in the middle of the room. Rivers gulped, but did as requested.

"Comfortable?" Owen asked then, kindly. "Yeah, yeah…" Rivers answered, then he spoke again: "What the hell is all this? Why do you welcome me here just like if I was some freakin' kind of prisoner!"

"Now, now…" Turkstone intervened, "Don't misunderstand us. You're not a prisoner. You're a guest. A very special guest for us".

Turkstone's kind manner really clashed with the cold expression in his eyes. Rivers was terrified by how intimidating his figure was.

"I may admit, Doctor, that my men could be rude. But they are exceptional soldiers. I couldn't have my job done without them. But…" Turkstone said, walking in circles around Rivers sitting place, "… you have to stay calm anyway, and keep your cool. Such a language cannot, will not be tolerated anymore. Am I clear?".

The General spoke gently, and nothing from his tune of voice sounded like menacing. But Rivers shivered in his uniform. "Yessir" he answered, quickly.

"Well, now that we're clear, I'll say one things or two about our mission. But first, what did they tell you about it?"

"Uh… They said it was a very top secret mission, that couldn't be discussed, and that I was requested here, as soon as possible. And… I came"

"And you, my friend…" Turkstone overemphasized the word 'friend',"are indeed very requested. Maybe I should show you what this is all about, shouldn't I?"

Owen took some kind of remote from the desk, and used it to turn on a video, suspended on the wall, in front of Doctor Rivers doubting eyes.

What he saw, shocked his soul of scientist.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

" 'Tonight, New York City belongs to the _Dandelions_, the most terrible and evil criminal gang of new york'… No, wait, I'm sure it's somethings deeper, like: 'We're trying to eke out a living' or 'Mommy and Dad hit me when I was young'. Did I get close?"

Casey Jones was having his time, lecturing those guys. They were just a bunch of teenagers who pretended to be a criminal gang and decided to show it to the world by exerting random violence on the streest of the sleeping city. They broke five cars, the window of a shop of comics, and an hydrant with their clubs and bludgeons. They were having fun, no doubt. Until they met Casey. He has never been a kind-hearted guy, but that night, he was in a really bad mood. He hit those 'Dandelions" guys, litteraly kicked the crap out of their sorry asses. Blood was everywhere in the deserted street. But he didn't kill them. Not yet. For now, he was having fun speaking a delirious monologue about social responsibility. They could hear him, but most of them were unable to speak. Too painful.

"So, you're not gonna answer me? Uh? Maybe I should ask it again" Casey shouted, coming closer to the guy who looked like the leader. A young man, lieing on his back on the sidewalk, the head resting upon the street. His look was blurry. He stopped being a human "thinking" some minutes ago. But Casey couldn't see that, wouldn't see that.

"WHAT were you THINKING when you decided to go and vandalize this neighborhood? If your answer won't be exhaustive, I'll chop your head with this wonderful 80's baseball bat".

"I thought you quit chopping heads, Casey".

The unexpected voice surprised Casey. It sounded familiar to him. But he couldn't remember… So confusing…

"Casey, what the hell are you doing? Are you out of your mind? Oh God… are they dead?"

That voice… so… irritating! No, no, not one voice… There were many...

"Hey, look at his eyes. He totally flipped out!"

"Totally"

"Casey…?"

"Hey, where the heck is he looking?"

"Just shut up for a second!"

The voices crowded in his head, multiplying themselves. He fell on his knees. What was happening to him?

"Casey… We're here. It'll be alright"

He felt the touch of an hand over his shoulder. It was cold.

"Hey.. Hey! Hey bros, he's losing consciousness!"

And then, it was dark.

- - - - - - - - - - - -

The turtles looked at disbelief at their friend collapsing on the ground. Donatello was the closest one to him, and grabbed him in time from behind.

"Blast. He's lost it!" Don said, looking worried.

Michelangelo wasn't at ease, he never was when something really bad – like that - happened. It took all of his grift to ask, shyly: "Is he going to be alright?".

A moan came from the group of vandals lieing all over the street behind the turtles.

"Ok, Don, Raph, you take care of Casey" Leo said, fimly, "Mike, you'll help me take care of the beaten guys".

Leo ran in that direction, and Mike followed right behind. Don slowly made Casey lieing on the ground, and took off his hockey mask. His face was pale.

But all Don's carefulness was wasted when Raph arrived and grabbed Casey's shirt, and began to shake him all, while shouting: "What the hell did you do? Wake up! Casey!".

"Hey, Raph, you're going to kill him like that! Quit it!" Don said, pushing his brother away from the man.

"But why did he faint? Why did he almost kill those scum people?" Raph growled, trying to keep down his clashing inner feelings. Donatello could understand him. He was the closest one among them to Casey Jones. The man was Raphael's best friend, which is different from a brother, but not less important.

Anyway, what happened looked unreal even to Don.

"I guess… It's just an hypothesis, but it looks like Casey got drunk… And… Don't know, he might even have mixed alcohol with some drug. We need to take him to my lab, in the lair"

Raph sat on the ground, helpless. "This can't be real!" , he lamented.

In the meanwhile, Leo and Mike had reached the vandals. They didn't wear anything like a uniform, just some dirty shirts and jeans. And now, those shirts and jeans were all ripped off. Well, maybe some already were, even before Casey came. But the blood, it surely came afterwards. Anyway, it didn't seem like they took fatal wounds. Casey was only playing with them… Or maybe, he was too drunk to hit as he wanted.

"Man… what a mess".

Mikey was standing there, scratching the back of his head with his right hand. Just didn't know where to start from first.

"Geez, there's a girl, too" Leonardo noted, looking at the unconscious body of a young woman lieing on her front. Michelangelo hurried closer and looked at her.

"Casey hit a girl? No way!"

"I know… This really sucks"

Leo bent over the girl, and slowly moved her so he could take a look at her face. She was a very young girl, not older than eighteen, with black short air and a clean, innocent face. Her clothes were as miserable as those of her friends.

Leo checked her wrist, heard the beat and was reassured to see that she was still alive.

"Leo, you'd better check this!" Mike said, and Leo looked at him, then in the direction pointed by his brother's hand, and he saw what he meant: the girl was losing blood from her stomach. A lot of blood.

"Damn, the injury must have widened. We got to heal her, quickly!"

"Let's take her to Don!"

Leonardo took her with his arms, then he slowly lifted her and walked toward Donatello, while Michelangelo staied behind to check again the others, just in case.

As the older turtle approached with the girl, Donatello warned him: "We have to reach the lair, Leo – oh man, that girl's losing a lot of blood! Shit!"

"We can't go to the lair. We can't bring this girl there with us. We must find an hospital" Leo answered.

"Agreed, but there's no time! She's gonna die"

Leo repressed a curse coming to his mouth, and looked away, trying to focus.

"Where's Raph?" then he asked.

"He's punching a wall over there" a disconsolate Don replied.

"Punching a wall?"

"He never knows how to react to things in a sane way"

"Ok, call him. We're leaving"

"What shall we do with the others?" Mike, who in the meantime had reached the others, asked.

"Just let them be. Guess they learnt the lesson"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The race through the sewers was quick and silent. None of the turtles was in the mood of chatting and joking. Not even Michelangelo.

Leonardo was wondering about how could all this happened. But he already knew the answer. Casey wasn't himself anymore, since that time. That time, when he accidentally killed that boy. He got in a rampage during one of his usual vigilante fight, tried to hit one of the bad guys, hit a kid instead.

When they first met, he used to be an enraged young man who wanted to bring justice in the world, at any cost. That vision of life made him look like a violent mad to others in the past, but he never was like that. And, as time passed, thanks to the turtles' influence, his maturity started to mitigate his younger and irresponsible spirit.

But when he killed that boy… the whole world collapsed on him. He started to drink. More and more. Until even April gave up, and after a fight, he broke up with her and left. Nobody knew where he went to live. The turtles had been looking for him since then, invain. What a shame to find him again in such a bad situation.

When they arrived at the lair, Splinter was sleeping – or meditating – in his own room. The door was closed, and the turtles didn't even try to open it. Not as their sensei could have been of help in that case. He was no doctor, either.

So they just put Casey and the girl each on a different sofa.

Since Casey had no injuries, Donatello looked at the girl, then touched her forehead. She was hot. Maybe fever. He pulled off the the rudimental tampon (made with a part of his violet bandana) from her injury, and looked at it. The bleeding didn't stop.

"Luckly, no vital organ was hit. But I have to sew the cut. Mikey, bring me my sterilized gloves and needles".

"Sure, Doc!" Mikey mocked, right before doing as requested.

"Ok, the girl is fine, but how's Casey doing? Can't you do anything for him?" Rapha questioned, crossing his arms toward his genius brother.

Donatello shook his head. "Who do you think I am, doctor House? If he's just drunk, we'll have to wait for him to sober up and wake up on his own. It's just like he's sleeping, you know".

Raph sighed in relief. "You could tell me earlier! I thought his conditions weren't good!"

"Naw, he just fainted. Now, let me operate! Sit down, and shut up!"

Raphael snorted and went to sit on a chair. Leonardo, instead, sat close to Don.

"Have you ever done this before?"

"Don't press me, Leo. It's just a sew. It shouldn't be different from sewing a shirt"

"What shirt? We never had shirts. Hey, Don, you never sewed a shirt!" Michelangelo asserted.

"Thanks, Mikey, that was just the boost that I needed. Now, silence!".

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"It felt so cold, before. Not now. Now, it's warm. But still, there is the dark. It doesn't look like it's going away soon. Light was so warm. Light is way better than the dark. But where is, now, the light? Is it gone? Will it come back?

Hope so. I really like the light.

Wait, I can see it. It's there! In front of me! But… it's far… Guess I should go toward it.

Now it's cold again"

"Hey, what's happening? She's shivering!"

"Wait, the bleeding is growing. Mike, more tampons!"

"Voices? How comes I can hear voices? I didn't smoke anything, lately. I've been here, in this dark, for a long time. Or maybe not? How much time did I spend in here? Hours? Weeks?

Can't remember the last time I saw the light. But now I know where it is, and I'm going to reach it. Sooner or later".

"Is she dying?"

"Don't know".

"Are these voices talking about me? Damn, it finally happened: I got crazy. Ah, but that's not gonna stop me from reaching the light.

It's strange, I keep on walking but it doesn't feel like I'm moving. The light is always there. I can see it. I can reach it, no matter how".

"WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS GREEN THING COMING OUT OF HER BLOOD?"

"D-don't know!"

"The light is too far. I'm not gonna reach it. It seems like I'm going to stay here. That's so unfair. I'm really mad, now".

- - - - - - - - - - - - -

The cut had been sewed. The girl's conditions were stabilized. And Donatello took a sample of that strange green liquid - which came out of their guest's injury – into a syringe.

"Weeew, that's creepy" Michelangelo said in disgust, looking at the awful content of that syringe.

Raphael looked disgusted, too. "That stuff was in her blood? Aww!"

Donatello, instead, was looking with interest and genuine curiosity. "This is quite interesting. I should study this at the microscope".

Raph shrugged. "Yeaah… how funny… Have your time. I'm going out".

"Here he goes again" Leonardo moaned. But he added nothing else. That was Raphael way's to deal with problems. It always had been. At least, Leo wanted to say to be careful, but that, instead of helping, would have only hurt his brother's pride.

Wait, maybe there was a way to prevent Raph from going outside and make some trouble.

"Hey Rapphy!" Leo shouted to his brother, who had almost reached the exit door.

"What?" he answered, turning his head.

"Instead of going out alone and end up in some mess, why don't you train with me? I'm going to kick all the stress out of your shell".

"Yeah, as if you were able to do so".

"Come on" Leo grinned.

"Guys, it's night. Wouldn't a normale person "sleep" at night?" Michelangelo intervened.

Raphael ignored his little brother, and answered Leo: "Ok, I'm in".

Mikey, who hated to be ignored, went in his own room grumbling something about a "family of ninja nerds".

Raph and Leo went in the training room and closed the door behind them. The room was simple, with no furnishings except some ninja weapons attached to the walls, such as spears, shuriken, naginatas (wood shaft with a curve blade on the hand) and kusarigamas (similar to knifes).

It wasn't the first time they sparred together, but they had started to do it more often, especially since Leonardo recognized the strenght of his younger brother, which happened lately.

"Weapons?" Raph asked.

Leo opened his arms as to hug the whole room, and added: "If you need any…"

Raph grinned and lowered his knees in a defensive pose. "Come on!"

Leo started first. He ran head-low, and when he came face to face with him, moved sideways, evading his brother's right kick. Then punched him with the right hand, but Raphael blocke, pulled Leo's hand and double kicked him aiming at the face. Losing his balance, everything Leonardo could do was to fall back and accompany the hit on the frontal part of his shell.

He backed off, and Raphael took the chance to mock him. "Ah! Is this the result of your training in Mexico?"

Leonardo smiled confidently, then grabbed a staff from the wall. "You haven't seen the result of my training, yet!".

Raph took a few shurikens and a sai, his favourite weapon. "Then, defend yourself!"

The two turtles ran toward each other. Raphael threw a first shuriken, then a second in rapid succession. Leonardo twirled in mid-air and dodged 'em both, then packed a punch. Raph slided down and dodged, but wasn't ready for the left kick which unavoidably hit him on the chin. Leo swinged his staff but Raph gained back his balance on his right foot in time and jumped away.

They were not trying to kill each other. Their weapons were not to hurt the opponent; both Leo and Raph used them only when they were sure the other turtle could avoid it easily. The meaning of using them was to unbalance the other, to open a hole into his defence. Afterall, they both were skilled master of ninjutsu.

After the last blow he had put through, Leo smiled. In response, Raph pointed his forefinger at him, and said: "Don't get cocky, already!"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"Crap, this is boring. All this darkness. And nothing around. Guess the afterlife must be something like this. I never actually believed in heaven, anyway. I'm not a bad person, it's just I don't really have faith. And I'm not making up excuses for this, like a bad childood or a rational reasoning. I guess it's just a matter of feelings, and I never felt like having a religion, that's all.

Hmmmm. I could sing something. Just for time-killing. Or maybe not. I'm tuneless.

Aaaah, I so wish someone could save me. When I'm bored I get angry. But there's nothing here I can get angry at. That makes me even angrier"

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Donatello couldn't sleep either. He was focusing his mycroscope on the green liquid from before. Didn't find out much yet, but he had noted how the particles that composed it had shown a special ability to attach to the red blood cells.

He was so engrossed in his work, that he didn't hear the steps behind him before they were too close.


End file.
